farewell

From: e.tedeschi <enrico_at_Brighton-UK.com>
Date: Thu Jul 10 15:17:34 1997

Kai Kaltenbach wrote:
>
> Enrico,
>
> You're absolutely, terribly correct. In our benighted shortsightedness
> we have been ignoring the core, the soul, nay, the very existentialism
> of the historical man-machine interface and the personal hygiene of Gary
> Kildall. These bits of metal and plastic have become a zen-like cyborg
> interface which has allowed us to ignore the realities of our Jungian
> existance. Those among us who have perused and then obviously ignored
> the message of the volume of our times, Gibson & Sterling's _The
> Difference Engine_, and shall surely rotate on the firey rotissery of
> Dante's twenty-ninth buglia of the pit, which of course is reserved for
> those who have committed the terrible sin of coveting thy neighbor's
> Imsai. How can we claim to discuss the so-called 'collecting' of
> so-called 'classic' computers when our hypocritical censorious
> self-righteousness has made us purblind to the fact that 'collect' also
> purtains to a short prayer comprising an invocation, petition, and
> conclusion! And 'classic' from the Roman 'classicus' identifies us as
> citizens of the first rank, who should know better! What this obviously
> boils down to is the age old conflict of materiality and the health of
> the soul cleaved by the sword of societal amiguity. In an awful orgy of
> idolitry we have in a very real and illusive sense integrated these
> actual bits of, as you put it, metal and plastic into our flesh itself,
> becoming no more than Waldos while Charles Babbage's heart is ripped
> from his chest by ravens dark as toner, eight claws upon each talon.
>
> Kai

Exactly!

enrico
Received on Thu Jul 10 1997 - 15:17:34 BST